We pray for Arlene, Lord, that
she's recently lost her dear husband and our dear friend,
Fred. We thank you, Father, for the
time that we got to share with him and enjoy his company and
worship with him and laugh with him and talk with him. fellowship with him around the
gospel. Oh, Lord, we know that we're not permanent fixtures
on this earth, that, Lord, that these bodies must go back to
the dust of this earth because it is of this earth. But we thank
you, Father, for the hope that you've given us, that we shall
eternally be with you In glory. Whom you've given life and light. And you've revealed your truth
to us. We ask you Lord today. To help me father as we attempt
to. In our humble way to speak from
your word. We know. Lord that we can do
nothing. But we know, Lord, we serve one
who's all-powerful, one who can take the words that are spoken
and work in men's hearts, Lord, toward their salvation. Help
us this day, in Christ's name we pray, and amen. All right,
our next hymn is 235, page 235. ? Baby, baby, baby, baby, baby,
baby, baby, baby, baby, baby, baby, baby, baby, baby, baby,
baby, baby, baby, baby, baby, baby, baby, baby, baby, baby,
baby, baby, baby, baby, baby, baby, baby, baby, baby, baby,
baby, baby, baby, baby, baby, baby, baby, baby, baby, baby,
baby, baby, baby, baby, baby, baby, baby, baby, baby, baby,
baby, baby, baby, baby, baby, baby, baby, baby, baby, baby,
baby, baby, baby, baby, baby, baby, baby, baby, baby, baby,
baby, baby, baby, baby, baby, baby, baby, baby, baby, baby,
baby, baby, baby, baby, baby, baby, baby, baby, baby, baby,
baby, baby, baby, baby, baby, baby, baby, baby, baby, baby, baby,
baby, baby, baby, baby, baby ? By the Spirit in me ? ? And
everything that you've shown ? ? Fill my heart deeply ? ?
Savior, Savior ? ? Hear my humble cry ? Stay with me in my prayer When
I sing Thy praise Be my body and my spirit Stay with me by
Thy prayer ? Come and take my heart away ?
? Do not pass me by ? ? Oh, those people on the counter
? ? Lord, I'd like to be there ? ? Look at my helpless body
? Say you, say you, here I am, oh God. My limbs have a part only, do
not pass me by. All right, at this time, Debbie, if you'll play the overture. Stan, would you and Steve come
up and receive the offering today? Our Father, we approach you again,
thanking you again, Lord, for this day, this opportunity to
worship you. We pray, Father, that you would
help us and guide us in the ways of truth. We pray that, Lord,
you might bless the offering this morning. Cause us, O Lord,
to realize that all that we have, Lord, thou hast given it to us.
Help us, Lord, with joy to return some of what you have given us.
We ask it in Christ's name, and amen. and and All right, the scriptures that
I read to you this morning that we want to use today tells
us something about the doctrine of substitution. And first, this doctrine tells
us here about three persons that are mentioned. The first one, it says, for He, He's speaking of God the Father,
for He hath made Him, that's the Lord Jesus Christ, who knew no sin to be sin for
us. That's the sinners, that's us. that we might be made the righteousness
of God in Him. Before we can understand God's
will, His work of salvation, it's necessary for us to know
something about the three persons. And certainly, unless we understand
them in some measure, That salvation is impossible to us. He said, no man can come to me
except it was given of him, of my father. It is impossible for a man of his own volition or his own
will to approach God in any way. Because when man fell, his fall was so great and the gulf between them was
so great that it was impossible, impossible for a man to approach
God. That's quite a problem, isn't
it? Well, it is for us, but it's
not for God. Here is the first God. Let every man know who he is. God is a very different being
from what some suppose. The God of heaven and earth,
the Jehovah of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, the creator and preserver,
the God of holy scriptures, and the God of all grace is not the
God that some men make to themselves and worship. There are men in this so-called
Christian land Not much calling it that anymore. I can remember
when it was touted that this was a Christian nation. But men are still religious,
and men still call on a God, a God that is their God, who worship
a God who is no God at all. I think of the woman at the well
when the Lord approached her and she said, we worship here
and we worship in the mountains. He said, you don't know what
you worship. That's where the world is today and they don't
know what they worship. The average man and woman don't
know what they worship. But they've got a God and they
know they're okay. They know they're saved, a lot
of them. A God made after their own hearts,
a God not fashioned out of stone or wood like the heathens used
to, but fashioned from their own thoughts, out of a baser
stuff than even the heathen ever attempted to make a God of. The
God of Scripture has many great attributes. And we want to talk about three
of them this morning. The God of Scripture is a sovereign
God. He's sovereign. Most people don't seem like they
know what that means. Or if they think they do, they
pervert it. But He is a sovereign God. He
is a God of absolute authority. We're living in a day when men
hate absolutes. People don't like absolutes,
where there's no variable. Men like gray areas. Everything's up for debate. Everything
can be questioned. No, no, not God. God has absolute
authority and absolute power to do exactly as He pleases. Over the head of God, there is
no law. Upon His arm, there is no necessity. He knows no rule but His own
free and mighty will. Although He cannot be unjust,
And he cannot do anything except good, yet his nature is absolutely
free. For goodness is the freedom of
God's nature. God is good. God is not to be controlled by
the will of man or the desires of man, nor by fate in which
the superstitious believe. He is a God doing as He will. In the armies of heaven and in
the lower world, He is a God, too, who gives no account of
His matters. He makes His creatures just what
He chooses to make them, and He does with them just as He
wills. And if any of them resist His
acts or resent His acts, He says to them, But, O man, who art
thou that replies against God? Shall the thing formed say to
him who formed it, why have you made me thus? Has not the potter
power over the clay? From the same lump to make one
vessel to honor and another to dishonor? It's God's. He created all things,
all things belong to Him. Living, inanimate, it's His. He created it. He can dispose
of it, and He can mold it any way He pleases, and none can
question God's authority. He's good. God is sovereign,
absolute, all-knowing. Nothing can control Him. The
God of this world is no constitutional and limited monarchy. It is not
tyrannical. But it is absolutely in the hands
of an all-wise God. But notice, it is no in no hands
but His, no cherubim, no seraphim can assist God in the administration
of His government. Not Mary, not the Pope, not so-called modern-day prophets. No one assists God in His government. He does as He pleases. He is
the God of predestination. The God upon whose absolute will
the hinge of fate does turn. This is the God of the Bible. This is the God whom His people
adore. No weak, effeminate God who is
controlled by the will of man, who cannot steer the ship of
providence, but a God unalterably infinite, unerring. This is the
God we worship, God as infinitely above his creatures as the highest
thoughts can fly and higher still than that. What a wondrous God he is. We marvel at his majesty. At
his justice. And but again, the God who is
here mentioned is a God of infinite justice. That he is a sovereign
God. I prove from the words that he
has made Christ to be sin. He could not have done it if he had not been sovereign.
That he is a just God, I infer from my texts, seeing that the
way of salvation is a great plan of satisfying justice. Oh yes,
infinite justice. And we now declare that the God
of the Holy Scriptures is a God of inflexible justice. He's not a God who many adore. They adore a God who is weak.
It winks at great sins. They believe in a God who calls
their crimes little faults. Some of them worship God who
does not punish sin, but who is so weakly merciful and so
mercilessly weak. that he passes by transgression
and iniquity and never enacts a punishment. They believe in
a God who, if man sins, does not demand punishment for his
offense. Well, there's plenty of preachers
and pastors in the pulpits telling men that God loves everybody. Why would you fear a God that
loves everybody? That's what they're told. That's
what they want to believe. But that's not the God of this
Bible. That's not the God that we worship. They think a few good works of
their own will pacify them. He's so weak a ruler that a few
good words uttered before him in prayer win sufficient merit
to reverse the sentence. If indeed they think he ever
passes a sentence at all, their God is no God. He is as
much a false God as the God of the Greeks and of the ancient
Ninevus. The God of Scripture is one who is inflexibly severe
in justice and will by no means clear the guilty. We're living
in a world today that obviously men think that if there is a
God, He's not going to do anything because the sins that they used
to cover up and used to hide, they're open with now. They have
no remorse, they have no fear of God. So by His not coming and dealing
with them quickly, they think He's not going to. But it's coming. In His good time. Although as a ruler, He will
chastise. Yet as the Father God, He loves
and bestows His blessings. As I live, says the Lord, I have
no pleasure in the death of him who dies, but had rather that
he should turn to me and live. God is love in its highest degree. He's love rendered, more than
love. Love is not God, but God is love. He is full of grace and He is
plentitude and mercy. He delights to show mercy. As
high as the heavens are above the earth, so high are His thoughts
above our thoughts and His ways above our ways. This God in whom
we, in whom these three great attributes harmonize, the immutability of sovereignty,
inflexible justice, and unfathomable grace. These three make up the
main attributes of one God of heaven and earth whom Christians
worship, whom true Christians worship. It is this God before
whom we must appear. It is He has made Christ to be sin for us that
knew no sin. Thus, we have bought the first
person before you. This second person that he speaks
of here, of our text, is the Son of God. It says Christ, who
knew no sin. He is the Son of God, begotten
of the Father. Before all worlds, begotten,
not made, being of the same substance with the Father, co-equal, co-eternal,
co-existent, He is very God of very God, having a dignity not
inferior to the Father, but being equal to Him in every respect. He thought it not robbery to
be equal with God. He is God in the flesh. God over all, blessed forevermore,
Jesus Christ, also is the Son of Mary, a man like unto ourselves. A man subject to all the infirmities
of human nature except the infirmities of sin. A man of suffering and woe, of pain and trouble, of
anxiety and fear, of trouble and of doubt, of temptation and
of trial, of weakness and death. Just as we are, he's a suitable
sacrifice because he is man. He's just like us in that respect. He's no less. He's God and no
less God. No less than God. He's man. He's essential. and purely man,
and not more than man. The two standing in a sacred
union together, the God-man of this God in Christ. Our text
says that He knew no sin. It does not say that He did not
sin, but that He, that we know. But
it says more than that. It says that he did not know
sin. He did not know what sin was. He saw it in others, but he did
not know it by experience. He was a perfect stranger to
it. It is not barely said. that he did not take sin into
his heart, but that he did not know it. It was no acquaintance
of his of any kind. No sin of thought, no sin of
birth, no original sin, no actual transgression, no sin of lip
or hand did Christ ever commit. He was pure, perfect, spotless
like his own divinity. without spot or blemish or any
such thing. This gracious person is He who
is spoken in the text. He was a person utterly incapable
of committing anything that was wrong. What a Savior. Now I have to introduce the third
person. We will not go far from him. The third person is the sinner
and where he is. There is only two kinds of people
in the world. That is the lost sinner and the
saved sinners. Yes, God is true. His true church
and true believers are sinners. They also will be until their
dying day. Though they have a true heart
towards God and hate sin, and the sin within them, they find
themselves falling way short of the righteousness that God
the Father requires. And that is perfect righteousness. Paul addresses it in Romans 7,
18 through 25. He said, for I know that in me
that is in my flesh dwelleth no good thing. For the will is
present with me, but how to perform that which is good I find not. For the good that I would, I
do not, but the evil which I would not, I do. Now if I do that that
I would not, it is no more I that do it, but sin that dwelleth
in me. I find then a law that when I would do good, evil is
present with me. For I delight in the law of God
after the inward man, but I see another law in my members, warring
against the law of my mind and bringing me into captivity to
the law of sin. which is in my members, O wretched
man that I am, who shall deliver me from the body of this death? I thank God through Jesus Christ
my Lord. That's why this body must die.
That's why this body has to stay on this earth and go back to
the dust of this earth. Because it is wretched and it
never gets any better. It never gets better. A lot of
people believe it does. A lot of people believe they
increase in holiness every day. No, this body is sinful. the righteousness of God. So the sinner needs the righteousness.
We are totally unable to produce. We need the very righteousness
of God because He can accept no less. Our text in 2 Corinthians
5.21 says, For He hath made Him to be sin for us, who knew no
sin, that we might be made the righteousness of God in Him.
How are we made righteous of God? Righteousness of God. We,
the sinner, obtain righteousness the same way that the father
Abraham received it. Romans 4, 3-8, he said, For what
saith the Scripture, Abraham believed God, and it was counted
unto him for righteousness. Now to him that worketh is the
reward not reckoned of grace but of debt, but to him that
worketh not but believeth on him that justifieth the ungodly
his faith is counted for righteousness. Even as David also describeth
the blessedness of the man unto whom God imputeth righteousness
without works, saying, Blessed are they whose iniquities are
forgiven and whose sins are covered. Blessed is the man to whom the
Lord will not impute sin. And his people, whom he has saved, who has cleansed from their sins,
in God's eyes, cannot sin. So who are these people? The
elect of God. They are those that He chose
from before the foundation of the world. And in due time, He calls them.
He brings them before the good news that they're one of His
through the preaching of the gospel. They are those whom God
in sovereign mercy has given them saving faith. by the works
of the Holy Spirit to believe on the Lord Jesus Christ. To
believe that when He suffered and bled and died on the cross
that He died for poor sinners like you and me. That God the
Father took all the sins of all His people of all generations
and laid them on Him that He would suffer our hell so we could
enjoy his heaven. So, I love that old song we sung
this morning, Savior, Savior, hear my humble cry, while on
others thou art calling, do not pass me by, Come, you weary, heavy laden,
lost and ruined by the fall. I love that song, too. If you
tarry till you're better, you'll never come at all. Let not conscience
make you linger, nor fitness fondly dream. All the fitness
he requires is to feel your need of him. I know I've been a long
time at this point, but I'd be remiss If I didn't bring into
this text one more person, I want you to turn to me to Ezekiel,
Ezekiel 36. And this person is absolutely
essential to salvation because this last person that we've been
talking to you about, The man, the sinner, he has a problem that all the
preaching in the world, all the eloquence that a preacher can
muster up, all the knowledge, all the knowledge that he can
present and all the arguments he can present about Christ.
is to no avail without this other person. You know why? Because the sinner
has a hard heart. And the more he hears the Word
of God and rejects the precious Word of Truth, the harder that
heart gets. It is so hard It is impenetrable. And there
is one inside him who guards that heart, that hard heart. Stays off the message of God's
grace and mercy. But he spoke in this manner in
Ezekiel. And he says in Ezekiel, I'll
start in verse 23, he says, And I will sanctify my great name,
which was profaned among the heathen, which ye have profaned
in the midst of them. And the heathen shall know that
I am the Lord, saith the Lord God, when I shall be sanctified
in you before their eyes. I will take from I will take
you from among the heathen and gather you out of all countries
and I'll bring you into your own land. Then I will sprinkle
clean water upon you." That clean water is the Word of God. I'll sprinkle clean water upon
you and you shall be clean. from all your filthiness, from
all your idols, will I cleanse you. A new heart, all soul will I give you, and
a new spirit will I put within you, and I
will take away the stony heart out of your flesh and I'll put
my spirit within you and cause you to walk in my statutes and you shall keep my judgments
and do them. And I also, I will also save
you from all your uncleanness. And in verse 31, he said, Then
shall you remember your own evil ways and your doings that were not good, and you shall
loathe yourself in your own sight for your iniquities and for your abominations. That's what the Holy Spirit does. That's what He does when God
effectually brings the gospel of His free and sovereign grace
to one of his elect. The work of the Spirit is absolutely
essential. Preaching will fall on deaf ears
because of a stony heart. It takes God to take out that
stony heart. It takes the Holy Spirit to remove that old stony heart.
And you know, he's not talking about this fleshly heart here.
He's not. This old heart of mine's been
took out of my chest and cut on and spliced on and sewn up
so many times that I don't think it'll be able to
take another. No doctors will be able to do
anything. But he's talking about that heart, that inner man, the
affections, who we really are. These bodies that we dwell in,
they're houses. They're just houses that we dwell
in while we're on this earth. That's why they got to stay here.
Well, I've talked enough. Thank you. Father, we thank you
and bless your name today. for your precious word, for your spirit. Thank you for giving us some
liberty today, causing us, Lord, to speak the truth. Help us, Lord, to take it within
us. Guide and direct us Cause us,
Lord, to walk in the right paths. In Christ's name we pray, amen. We've got cake and ice cream
for Justice's birthday, if y'all want to join us. It's all chocolate.